by Holly Lisle
"No. Because of my own stupidity. Because I signed a deal with the devil, and thought that meant I couldn't repent. But it's never too late to repent."
"Not ever."
Something brushed against her leg. Something small, and furry. She looked down expecting to see the kitten—and indeed the little monster still had its kitten body—but its head had transformed into something hideous. Green, toothy, with glowing red eyes and mucus dripping from the cavernous nostrils, it grinned at her, then hissed.
She yelped, and Dan saw the little monster, and grabbed it, and chucked it off the balcony in one quick toss.
She shuddered, perhaps from standing in the air conditioning wearing soaking wet clothes, or perhaps from that last reminder of where she had been, and what had nearly become of her. She whispered, "A gift from Puck."
"I almost ended up with one of those myself," Dan said, and hugged her closer.
Chapter 49
Lucifer tightened the rack another notch. Scumslag, long past coherent reply, gave another inarticulate scream as parts of his body crunched and ripped.
"Do you have any idea how many of my people your little experiment cost me?" Lucifer asked. "Eighty-three percent of your hand-picked volunteers turned." Lucifer gave the crank another turn. "Eighty-three percent. In exchange for over two thousand of my best Hellraised workers, do you know how many souls we got that we wouldn't have had otherwise?"
Crank.
Scream.
"One."
Crank.
Scream.
"I got Meg Lerner out of it—and maybe I'll be able to hang onto her until she dies. But she might get smart, too. It isn't like I can send someone up there to kill her off while she's still ours."
Crank.
Scream.
"This is not good, Scumslag. Not good at all. You can consider this the first notice of your demotion."
Crank.
Scream.
"You got me the ground for Devil's Point. I'll give you that. More than anything else, that's why I'm being so easy on you."
Crank.
Scream.
Crank.
Scream.
"But who am I going to find to build it? And to run it? Who could possibly be more evil than you? Where else am I going to find someone with an MBA and an Evilness Index of 970?"
Lucifer stared off into the gloomy reaches of Hell as he gave the crank a final turn. He thought about the future. A smile began to tug at the corners of his mouth, and he leaned in close to his former away-commander.
"I'll find someone, I suppose. I have to. I can't let our grand opportunity go to waste. After all," he said quietly. "There is so much left to do." He gently traced one talon across Scumslag's sweat-beaded forehead.
And then he began the torture.
THE END
